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Dyson Racing withdraws from 24 Hours of Le Mans

A shortage of sponsorship money has derailed the 24 Hours of Le Mans hopes of Dyson Racing. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

American Le Mans Series front-runner Dyson Racing will not race in June's 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team has announced.

Dyson Racing earned two entries into this year's 80th running of the 24 Hours by winning the 2011 ALMS championship and the Michelin Green X Challenge. The team in January accepted the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's invitation to participate at Le Mans “contingent on being able to put together a fully competitive package without compromising their primary 2012 goal of defending their five ALMS championships.” But that has not happened.

“We fully intended to participate in this year's Le Mans event,” said Chris Dyson, vice president and sporting director of Dyson Racing. “Following six months of intense effort, we have not been able to assemble the financial resources necessary to complement the technical and organizational assets we already had in place with Lola, Dunlop and Status Grand Prix. With heavy hearts, therefore, we are returning the two invitations to the ACO.

“We are excited about going to Le Mans in the future, but unfortunately, the economic timing did not work out this year. We and our partners at Mazda, Lola and Dunlop, along with G-OIL and ModSpace, will continue our focus on repeating as ALMS champions.”

“Dyson Racing has been in existence for almost four decades,” noted team principal Rob Dyson. “I raced at Le Mans in 1986 and consider it one of the highlights of my life. Chris has also raced there, and it is hard not to argue that it is one of motorsport's most iconic races. We will continue to work towards racing there in the future. We are very grateful to the ACO and IMSA for the automatic entries and to Lola and Status GP for their eagerness to work with Dyson Racing. One of the hallmarks of our team is that we do not embark on a program unless we have all the resources to be fully competitive. That has been a constant through all of our history.”

As a result of Dyson's withdrawal, Status GP's own Lola-Judd LMP2 entry moves up from the reserve entry list and into the race, as does the Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan.